Rapid digitalization has reshaped financial decision-making, and anxiety about later life is an important concern among middle-aged and older investors. Yet it remains unclear whether the traditional Big Three financial knowledge component captures the aspects of financial capability most closely associated with lower anxiety in digital financial environments. This study examines the association between old-age anxiety and digital financial literacy (DFL) components among digitally active Japanese retail investors aged 40–64. Using data from a large-scale survey of 94,695 investors, we estimate ordered probit models to examine overall DFL and its eight subdimensions. While overall DFL is negatively associated with anxiety about life after age 65, decomposing the index reveals substantial heterogeneity across components. The traditional Big Three financial knowledge component does not show a robust independent negative association with old-age anxiety once actionable and protective digital competencies are accounted for. In contrast, practical know-how, positive financial attitude, and self-protection are more consistently associated with lower anxiety. Supplementary heterogeneity analyses suggest that the positive conditional association between financial knowledge and anxiety is most visible among men aged 50–59, although these subgroup patterns should be interpreted cautiously. These findings do not imply that financial knowledge is unimportant. Rather, they suggest that Big Three financial knowledge alone may be an insufficient proxy for the dimensions of financial capability associated with lower self-reported old-age anxiety in digital financial environments. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings are interpreted as conditional associations rather than causal effects.
Amarsanaa et al. (Mon,) studied this question.